Revised Version — Holy Bible
Oxford University Press / Cambridge University Press
First published 1885
Revised Version — Holy Bible
The Revised Version (RV) of 1885 was the first major revision of the King James Version, commissioned by the Convocation of Canterbury in 1870. It incorporated newly discovered Greek manuscripts — particularly the Westcott-Hort critical text — and aimed to correct errors that had accumulated over the KJV's 270-year history.
History & Background
The NT was released in 1881 (selling over a million copies in its first week), the OT in 1885, and the Apocrypha in 1895. Scholars B.F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort, who had spent 28 years producing their landmark Greek critical text, were instrumental contributors. The RV's American variant became the ASV (1901). Though soon superseded in popular use, it established the template for all modern scholarly revisions.
Canon Proximity Rating
Includes 66 Protestant books; Apocrypha edition also available. Historically essential as the first critical-text revision of the KJV.